Privacy Policy

Last updated: 24 October 2026

This site is a personal game development blog run by SylarAtomic. This page explains, in plain language, what information the site collects, why, and what you can do about it. If anything here is unclear, get in touch.

The short version

• Reading the blog doesn't require an account, and I never sell your information.
• The site shows ads from Google AdSense, which uses cookies. If you're in the UK, the EEA or Switzerland, you're asked first, and you can change your choice at any time through the Privacy and cookie settings link at the bottom of the page.
• Google Analytics measures how the site is used, such as which pages are visited, so I can see which posts are useful. In the UK, the EEA and Switzerland it only uses cookies if you agree.
• If you use the contact form, I store your name, email and message so I can reply.
• If you chat on my Twitch streams, your Twitch username and how much you took part can appear on the stream stats page. Type !statsoptout in chat to be left out for good.

1. Information collected

If you send a message through the contact form

I store:

• the name, email address and message you enter;
• the date and time it was sent.

I use this only to read your message and reply to it. The legal basis is legitimate interests: you've contacted me and would reasonably expect a reply.

Spam filtering. Messages are automatically checked for common spam signals, such as known spam sender domains and randomly generated text. A message that looks like spam is filed in a separate folder rather than deleted, and I review it myself, so a genuine message caught by mistake isn't lost. This check has no legal or similarly significant effect on you.

Your IP address. To stop the form being flooded, your IP address is held in memory for up to 60 seconds to count recent submissions. It is never written to storage.

When you browse the site

The site uses Google Analytics, which sets cookies to measure things like which pages are visited, roughly where visitors are (country or city level), and what device and browser they use. I use this to understand which content is worth writing more of.

If you visit from the UK, the European Economic Area or Switzerland, Google Analytics only sets these cookies once you agree in the consent message described under Advertising below. Until then, or if you decline, it sends Google only basic cookieless signals, such as that a page was viewed, which don't identify you or link your visits together.

You can block these cookies in your browser settings, or install Google's opt-out add-on. The site works normally without them.

Advertising

The site shows ads served by Google AdSense. They help pay for hosting and for the time that goes into the posts.

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your previous visits to this site or to other websites.
• Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this site and/or other sites on the internet.
• Other third-party vendors and ad networks may also serve ads on the site. They, too, may use cookies, web beacons or similar technologies to show ads and measure how they perform. The consent message (see below) lists every one of them.

To see how Google uses information from sites that show its ads, read How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services. Google explains its advertising cookies in How Google uses cookies in advertising.

Your consent. If you visit from the UK, the European Economic Area or Switzerland, a message from Google asks for your consent before advertising cookies are used to personalise ads and before Google Analytics sets cookies, and lets you consent, refuse, or choose individual purposes and vendors. You can change your mind at any time with the Privacy and cookie settings link at the bottom of the page. If you don't consent, you may still see ads, but they won't be personalised to you. The legal basis for advertising and analytics cookies is your consent.

Opting out of personalised ads. Wherever you are, you can turn off personalised advertising from Google in Google's Ads Settings, and opt out of some other vendors' use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info or, in Europe, Your Online Choices.

Cookies used on this site

The site itself sets no cookies for visitors. The cookies below come from Google's services. The names are examples, and Google may change them.

You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings. The site still works without them.

Twitch stream statistics

When you chat on my Twitch streams, my stream bot (Streamer.bot, running on my own computer) counts what happens in chat: how many messages you send, which of my emotes and screenshot emotes are used, and the channel points you spend on rewards. It never keeps what your messages say. At the end of each stream the totals, with your Twitch username, are sent to this site and may be shown on the stream stats page, for example as the stream's top chatter or as one of the first three to claim "first". The bot also keeps all-time counts of some channel point redeems and screenshot emotes (screenshots, podium places, hydrate, stretch and posture reminders, farts), which appear with your username on the page's leaderboard. It also notes gifted subs, bits cheered, raids and shoutouts, and the page's leaderboards rank viewers by these and by how many streams they chatted in. Anyone can look up a username's numbers there. Twitch chat and these events are already public; I do this because viewers enjoy seeing it (legitimate interests).

To be left out, type !statsoptout in chat or send me a message. Your username (and your Twitch user ID, so a later name change doesn't bring you back) goes on a permanent list that is never shown, and you are removed from every stream already recorded and from the leaderboards. Your messages still count towards the anonymous totals, such as the number of messages in a stream.

Sign-in

Only the site owner signs in, to read contact messages. Visitors are never asked to sign in and never receive sign-in cookies.

2. Who your information is shared with

The services that make the site run:

• Google hosts the site (Firebase App Hosting, Netherlands), stores contact messages (Cloud Firestore, European Union), and provides Google Analytics.
• Twitch serves the emote pictures on the stream stats page, so your browser fetches them from Twitch, which sees your IP address and browser details.
• Google AdSense and its advertising partners receive information such as your IP address, device and browser details, the page you're on and cookie identifiers when ads are shown, within the limits of the consent choices you've made.
• Discord receives a notification when a new message arrives, containing your name, email address and message, so I see it promptly. Messages identified as spam are not sent.

Some of these providers may process data outside the UK, under their own safeguards for international transfers.

Bored Zone (boredzone.app) is my own games site. If you follow a link to it from here, your browser tells it you came from sylaratomic.com (the site's address only, not which page), and Bored Zone's Google Analytics records that, so I can see how many visitors the blog sends. Links to other sites don't pass this on.

Apart from the advertising and the Bored Zone visit count described above, I don't sell your information or share it with anyone else, except where the law requires it.

3. How long it's kept

• Contact messages are kept until I delete them. If you'd like yours deleted, just ask.
• Stream statistics are kept for as long as the stream stats page exists, except for anyone who has opted out, as above.
• Analytics data is kept according to the retention period set in Google Analytics, after which Google deletes it.
• Advertising and consent cookies last as long as Google and its partners set them to: typically up to 13 months in the UK and EEA, and sometimes longer elsewhere, unless you delete them sooner.

4. Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask me to:

• tell you what information I hold about you and give you a copy;
• correct anything that's wrong;
• delete your information;
• stop or limit how I use it.

To do any of these, send me a message. If you're unhappy with how your information has been handled, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.

5. Children

This site isn't aimed at children under 13, and I don't knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child has sent me a message, contact me and I'll delete it.

6. Changes to this policy

If the site starts collecting or using information differently, I'll update this page and the date at the top.